"■an Naturalis 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



The Robertson Cyanide Bottle.— Many entomologists have 

 experienced more or less trouble in using the commonly recommended 

 plaster-of-Paris cyanide bottle on account of the moisture that accumu- 

 lates on the inside. I was recently shown by Professor Chas. Robertson, 

 of Illinois, a plan he has adopted which is simple, practical, and causes 

 no trouble of this kind. He uses wide-mouthed bottles with cork stop- 

 pers. He cuts out of the lower side of the cork a hole large enough to 

 receive a small pill box. The pill box is filled with cyanide ; a dozen 

 pin holes are made through its bottom ; and then it is inserted in the 

 hole in the cork. The fumes pass through the pin holes into the bottle. 

 Such a bottle can be easily washed out, and has many advantages 

 especially for flies, bees and similar insects.— C. M. W. 



Entomological Notes.— Professor A. J. Cook, of Michigan, 

 spent the winter in Southern California. * * * Professor J. H. Cora- 

 stock of Cornell University has been at the Leland Stanford Junior 

 University during the winter, lecturing on entomology. * * * Pro- 

 fessor Chas. Robertson, of Illinois, is studying the relations of flowers 

 and insects in Florida. * * * Professor J. B. Smith, of Rutgers Col- 

 lege, recently visited Europe to study types of Noctuidae.. * * * Miss 

 Mary E. Murtfeldt has contributed to the December Insect Life an 

 interesting note on the " Hominivorous Habits of the Screw Worm in 

 St. Louis." * * * Mr. Albert Koebele, of the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture has gone to Australia for more beneficial insects. 



Professor Forbes' Sixth Report.— The seventeenth report of 

 the State Entomologist of Illinois for the years 1889 and 1890 has 

 lately been issued. Like its recent predecessors it gives evidence of 

 the careful, exhaustive work so characteristic of Professor Forbes' 

 investigations. The report proper covers about 100 pages with an 

 appendix of 40 pages. In the general record for the two years covered 

 it is stated that the previous prediction concerning the disappear- 

 ance of the chinch bug outbreak had proven correct. Two species of 

 aphides (Siphonophora granaria and Toxoptera graminum) had 

 appeared in the grain fields ; the former having " inflicted the worst 

 injury upon agriculture ever done in Illinois 

 species." The general discussions include the fc 





